The Palestinian leadership made a mistake by suspending action on a U.N. report on Gaza war crimes, a member of President Mahmoud Abbas' inner circle said Wednesday - the first such acknowledgment after days of protests in the West Bank and Gaza.

At issue is a 575-page United Nations report that alleged both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel's three-week offensive against the Islamic militants in Gaza last winter.

Last week, Abbas withdrew Palestinian support for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to have the report sent to the UN General Assembly for possible action. Such a vote would have been a first of many steps toward possible war crimes tribunals.

With the Palestinians out of the picture, the council set the report aside for six months.

Abbas made the decision under heavy U.S. pressure, Palestinian and Israeli officials have said. U.S. officials told Palestinian leaders that a war crimes debate would complicate efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, according to participants in such meetings.

Abbas' aides have defended the step, saying the Palestinians needed more time to win international support for the U.N. report. They said deferring action did not mean burying the report.

But Abbas apparently underestimated the angry response at home. With every day, there were more protests, marches and statements of condemnations, not only from his Hamas rivals, but also from human rights groups and intellectuals.

On Wednesday, senior Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio that the Palestinian leadership had erred.

"What happened is a mistake, but [it] can be repaired," said Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "We have the courage to admit there was a mistake."

In Gaza, public outrage at Abbas reached a new level on Wednesday, when hundreds of posters criticizing the Palestinian president appeared in public areas around Gaza City. Abbas and Hamas have been bitter rivals since the Islamic group violently seized control of Gaza from pro-Abbas forces in June 2007.

The text on one poster under an Abbas photo read: To the dumps of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas. Another had a big, black X over Abbas' face.

A crew dressed in civilian clothes was seen putting up the posters Wednesday morning, though it was not immediately clear who headed the campaign. The posters were signed Intellectuals and university professors.

In an apparent attempt at damage control, Abbas' government is now backing a request by Libya to convene the UN Security Council for an emergency session on the report, written by South African Judge Richard Goldstone. Council members were to meet Wednesday to discuss the request.

Libya is the only Arab member on the 15-nation council, the U.N.'s most powerful body.

Whether the Libyans and Palestinians succeed remains to be seen.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, is expected to argue that the Security Council should not take up the document until the Human Rights Council considers it. The U.S., along with four other permanent members of the Security Council, can veto any resolution before the Council. Israeli officials declined comment on the council meeting.

The Goldstone report accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harmed civilians. It said Hamas fired rockets indiscriminately at civilians in southern Israel.

Both Israel and Hamas have denied the allegations.

PA: Advance peace talks or face war crimes tribunal

On Tuesday, a close associate of Abbas told Haaretz that if Israel does not soften its positions on the peace process, the Palestinian Authority will resume pushing to get the Goldstone report moved to the Security Council, and thence to the International Criminal Court.

The PA initially proposed that the UN Human Rights Council pass the report onto the Security Council, which has the power to ask the International Criminal Court to open a criminal case, but then withdrew its motion under pressure from the United States, which feared that such a move would derail Washington's drive to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Abbas' associate said that not only the U.S., but also Britain and China vehemently opposed the PA's original motion. And since all three have veto power in the Security Council, referral to the Security Council would have accomplished nothing except to antagonize three major powers, he explained.

Several Arab states also urged Abbas to withdraw the motion, after they too, came under pressure from Washington, he said.

Erekat threatens to name names

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the French media Tuesday that Abbas is now considering asking Arab states to raise the Goldstone report in the Security Council themselves. Erekat also threatened to reveal the names of all the countries that pressured Abbas to pull the motion and instead negotiate with Israel without preconditions.

The growing criticism of Abbas' decision is apparently what prompted him to publicly demand Tuesday that Arab states fight what he termed an Israeli takeover of Jerusalem, even though privately the PA is worried by the possibility of a conflagration in the city: It was an effort to divert attention from the Goldstone issue.

However, it did not stop Nabil Amr, a leading member of Abbas' Fatah movement who has long been one of his outspoken critics, from resigning as the PA's ambassador to Egypt Tuesday to protest Abbas' decision on the Goldstone report.

Moreover, the Israeli Arab party Balad announced a rally in Acre on Saturday at which it plans to demand that Abbas resign over the decision, which it termed "a political crime." This is very unusual, as Israeli Arab parties generally refrain from coming out openly against the PA leadership.

"Someone who ignores the occupier's crimes and even tries to whitewash them cannot be the legitimate representative of his people," Balad said in a statement.

Hadash, another Israeli Arab party, also slammed Abbas' move Tuesday.

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The report allows both Israel and Hamas to accuse each other of "war crimes." How can the sides try to may peace when both of them have been accused of war crimes?
Would they both say they are sorry, but you were worse than me?

Mr. (HOLLOW SUIT) Abbass needs to somehow, before their election, sstrike a blow to Hamass by sending them and Israel on to a public drumhead (Hague) court...it is the only leverage he can grift by playing the "even minded judge" card and keeping his teflon coated (anti-Hamass) political sheilds up. whataguy! (whatagoy)

All what the PA does is to threathen, kill, incite, etc, etc.......nothing productive. They look for trouble and create one with an extension. All of a sudden, because of the Goldstone report they have all become lawyers and seemed to know international law by heart. Would you beleive, that these people that now wear suit & tie are desert bandits and terrorists have been taking advantage from the Goldstone report. I dont know why the world community is tolerating this. These bandits are lucky that this is not Russian terrority because they will just send in their troops and tanks, deal with this type of nonsense then talk later.

Pressure is on Israel to be accountable. The entire world has seen the Gaza invasion. It is not a time to back-off until Israel honestly comes to the bargaining table prepared to do what is correct for Palestinians.
It is not too late for peace. However Israel has the key to peace, and that is to end the occupation, withdraw from the West Bank, allow freedom of movement for all Palestinians (WB and Gaza)and economically assist in building a viable, independent Palestinian nation.

that the israelis showed abbas and friends a video of abbas encouraging barak and livni to continue with the war in gaza, and also a taped telephone conversation of dov weisglas talking to an aide of Abbas telling him that if they went deeper into gaza there would be thousands of casualties. according to al jazeera, the Aide replied that since they voted for hamas, they had 'chosen their own destinies'. apparently this caused abbas to decide to 'defer action'.

Sure, bring on the report! Let's prosecute all the war criminals, and that means just about the entire Palestinian leadership.
Goldstone was very clear: the Palestinians committed war crimes. He was very blunt: attacking Israeli civilians on purpose is a war crime.
Uh Oh!!! That means the Palestinians have been committing war crimes for decades. Not just Hamas, but Fatah leaders too sent their armed thugs out to attack and kill Israeli civilians.
The Goldstone report is clear and unequivocal: Palestinians leaders must be put on trial for their war crimes.
Bring 'em on!

The PA can push the report as far as they want, hopefully where the sun does not shine.
All they are doing is looking for an excuse to start Intifada 3! If you want to start another mini war its ok by me, because this time we will really take the gloves off.

Again the fact that Israel doesn't have a partner for peace surf's up.
Abbas whom Israel and the west put all their money on is a"traitor"and no doubt a"candidate"
for assassination by Hamas,IJ,and some other
"nice guys".There is no partner,Abbas is not strong enough,and Hams are not sane enough.

Action would lead to a vote,and a vote in the UN
would be the first of many steps towards possible war crimes tribunals where we would spend some years for nothing,and one can forget
all about peace proces in those years.If one wants to delay the creation of a Palestinian state one should take action.

Maybe deferring action was a mistake,but that is no news,even if true.
The road to the hell we living in right now is paved with Arab's mistakes.The mistake of refusing to accept reality some 60 years ago
was only the first of a string of mistakes,also internal.The biggest mistake is that so many Palestinians still believe that they can change
the reality of some 60 years,the same first mistake they made then.

That was the mistake - that he forgot who he is suppose to represent - the Palestinians NEED to oust this collaborator - can you imagine an Israeli leader doing something similar without him losing everything? This is a crime.

Abbas and the thieving Al Kidwa clan he works for have exhausted their ability to loot foreign aid from Western suckers, and are playing their last card - that the international community will dismantle Israel, jail Jewish leaders as war criminals, and impose a "solution" on Arab terms. Uh-huh. Right. Its time to let this end-game play out and give Abbas the choice he wants. The fantasized war crimes trials of Israelis for defending their country ain't gonna happen, and NO PA STATE will be the result of this moronic game-playing. They have had their chance to recognize Jewish neighbors, and blew it. No more 2nd chances. Nothing has changed since 1948. Trans-Jordan is Palestine, the "one-state solution". With maybe a couple of "contiguous" sovereign "safe-passage" land bridges to a few enclaves of Arab settler towns west of the Jordan River. West Bank-Gaza PA state comes off the table as the starkly unworkable and stupid idea it always was.

The only thing they excell in is whining.They seduce with their misery while killing their own.They all jockey for power yet none of them care about their own people.let the goldstone report come to light as it will show the true character of hamas.Blame abbas if you wish but he is the only moderate available.Can't wait for the day when Israel unleashes on the pals and wipes them out.

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